Karl F. Kuhn - Basic Physics: A Self-Teaching Guide, 3rd Edition (Wiley Self Teaching Guides)

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Third Edition

Karl F. Kuhn

Frank Noschese

Copyright 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Previous editions copyright 1979, 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBNs: 978-1-119-62990-0 (paperback), 978-1-119-62991-7 (ePDF), 978-1-119-62989-4 (ePub)

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Image: tmeks/Getty Images

THIRD EDITION

For Jonah and Sophie:

The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.

- Albert Einstein

First, I am grateful to the many John Jay High School students I've taught over the past 20-plus years. They have taught me just as much, if not more, than I taught them. The insights I've gained about how students learn science have informed the revisions for this edition.

Thanks for the tremendous help and understanding from Pete Gaughan, Riley Harding, and the rest of the team at John Wiley and Sons.

Additional thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for connecting me with the Wiley team to work on the third edition.

Frank Noschese

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This maxim applies to books as well as to many other endeavors, and it explains why such a long time passed between the second and third editions of this book. Elementary physics does not change much in a few decades, and therefore this edition contains very little new subject matter.

Why a new edition, then? First, some new examples have been added, either because of change in fashions or because of new applications of basic physics. An example of the latter is the ubiquity of the smartphone, a device that didn't exist when the second edition was printed. Second, some explanations have been rewritten to improve clarity. Finally, the look of the book has been updated to make it more attractive to today's readers.

The fundamental purpose of the book has not changed, however, and if you are considering a study of this book, you probably fit into one of the following categories:

• You are enrolled in an introductory physics course and wish to have a study guide to accompany your textbook. This book follows the traditional order of topics that is used in the most popular classroom texts.
• You are taking a course that uses a nonmathematical, conceptual book as its primary text, and your instructor has adopted this book as a supplement in order to include more problem-solving in the course. The traditional order of topics in this book is also used in the most prevalent conceptual physics texts.
• You are enrolled in a course that uses this book as its primary text.
• You are not taking a formal physics course, but you wish to learn, or review, some physicsperhaps to enable you to pass a test that requires a knowledge of physics.

In any case, Basic Physics can help you. It is a complete, self-contained physics book with a programmed format. The chapters are divided into short steps called frames. Each frame presents some new material, and then asks you questions to test your comprehension. By faithfully answering the questions (preferably by actually writing the answers in the spaces provided or on a separate sheet) before you check the answers we supply, you will be able to check your progress. Learning theory tells us that by writing your answers, you understand and retain the material for a longer time. In fact, I suggest that you do not look at the answers until have completed your own. If your answer does not agree with the one we provide, be sure you understand the discrepancy before proceeding to the next frame. To check yourself further, a Self-Test, with answers, is included at the end of each chapter.

Since physics builds from one principle to another, many chapters require an understanding of previous chapters. For this reason, the prerequisites for each chapter are listed on the first page of the chapter. Some frames within chapters, however, may be skipped without disrupting the logic of the development. Such frames, which are often mathematical treatments of the subject at hand, are labeled as optional. Some optional frames have a prerequisite of a prior optional frame; such prerequisites are listed at the beginning of the frame.

I suggest that you complete the entire Self-Test at the end of a chapter before checking your answers. In this way, your test will be more similar to classroom testing. Each answer in the Self-Test section includes a reference to the frame (s) to which you should return for help on missed items.